It's written by a guy named ONE, and started out as a webcomic before a remake in partnership with Murata was developed. Fundamentally, it's a gag manga that parodies a lot of stuff and makes fun of the stereotypes and cliches typical to action-hero stories.

The basic plot revolves around a would-be salaryman, named Saitama, who acts like a hero as a hobby. He's always admired the ideals and poise of heroes, and after an incident when he was searching for a job, he underwent some training to help him fit the part. But as a result of his training, he became far too powerful, and ends up killing all of his opponents with a single punch. Because of this, he's lost a lot of his passion for the actual combat aspect of heroism, and becomes quite despondent.

I've read all of the manga and even ONE's webcomic, and after reading through it again today I decided to make a topic. It's very rare that I would ever read or watch something more than once - that tends to happen only for titles I really like - so I was surprised I liked OPM enough to give it another read-through.

The art is very good in the remake and characteristic in the original. It's exciting action-wise although it can get a bit convoluted with the idealism in the more recent webcomic chapters, which is pretty typical of superhero manga. It's pretty funny and the monsters are universally repulsive, so it's easy to support Saitama even though he's the literal incarnation of anti-climax.

I personally feel the chance of an anime is high, but it would burn through material like an airplane burns high octane fuel. On the other hand, given it's a gag manga (like Gintama) you'd think that also offers the opportunity for decent filler. I'm not sure.

Related to this is Ratman, another superhero manga I like, but that one is more serious and probably the weaker series, although they're both very, very good.

I love this shit. Up to date now and probably the manga I enjoy the most (Haven't read many but this is the shit).

First episode was everything I wanted it to be. Madhouse did an incredible job with the animation and Saitama's character is captured perfectly. I think I read that the official release is October? Either way I'm pumped. Looking forward to seeing how they capture the Sea King arc.

ONE is a pretty interesting guy to me. Maybe it's a bit weird because for a long time the vanguard of manga-ka stayed the same, guys born in the 1970's, but ONE like Ishiyama is the same age as me, and has proven to be capable of writing an original, entertaining, non-derivative manga.

ONE is a pretty interesting guy to me. Maybe it's a bit weird because for a long time the vanguard of manga-ka stayed the same, guys born in the 1970's, but ONE like Ishiyama is the same age as me, and has proven to be capable of writing an original, entertaining, non-derivative manga.

Maybe I have this bad stereotype of "Millennials".

Murata's. As much as I should probably read ONE's to know the whole story I just can't get over the art.

EDIT: Anyway, about the OP. As much as I like the official one and I think it fits the show very well, I really like Anba & Vulkain's version which was made last year.

I can imagine what the production committee of OPM was thinking when they got the script.

Big Wig: "You know, anime is more expensive than ever."
Long Hair: "Yes."
Big Wig: "And you know, people really don't care about quality, all they want is cute girls."
Long Hair: "Yes."
Big Wig: "But have you read this script?"
Long Hair: "Yes. It is really expensive, and has no cute girls."
Big Wig: "Do you think this well sell?"
Long Hair: "We could put no effort and it would sell."
Big Wig: "Great."
Long Hair: "..."
Big Wig: "Is your checkbook here?"
Long Hair: "Just sign on the bottom line."

So I watched Episode 1 this past Wednesday. Forgot to post about it. I ............ suppose that speaks volumes about my enthusiasm for the series. ^^;

I thought it was good! But I didn't think it was great. It also wasn't exactly my kind of good, if you know what I mean. Like ... I can both objectively and subjectively assess Episode 1 as a 7 out of 10, but at the same time ... it fills me with as much "I want to watch more! " confidence as a 3 or a 4 out of 10 would. It's ...

... well, it's very silly, for one. And it's wonderfully animated. In particular the fight scenes / fight screens. Very well, very lovingly done. But yeah ... it's very silly. ^^; Too silly, for my tastes. Or rather ... no ... it isn't that it's too silly, it's ... it's that it's not the right kind of silly? For me? I just ... while it's on a different plane of existence from juvenile humor like fart jokes or sex jokes, it still feels every bit as juvenile. It's ... it's hard to identify what exactly it is, but it's just ... "it's too silly for the kind of show I think it to be." Something like that.

Based off of Episode 1 alone, in summary:

would rate 7/10

would say the "ANIME OF THE YEAR!" hype is overblown

will press on to Episode 2

will drop after Episode 2 if it stays the same or gets worse

but only because I have too much on my plate right now

and an enormous backlog of anime that I hold to be much better than a "mere" 7 out of 10

if I had more time, I'd definitely enjoy watching this series with you guys even if it only remains a 7 out of 10

So we'll see what happens once I get around to watching 02. Will I drop it? Will I continue?

OPM is primarily a gag manga, but if it stayed like it did in the first episode I don't think people would hold it in such esteem. The same joke would have gotten old. But the cast expanded, the plot got deeper, and that's where things really took off.

Watched Episode 02. It was enjoyable, but not greatly so. At least not for me. It had its moments, but the first two episodes don't inspire me to place One Punch Man ahead of other programs in line. So I think I'll be putting the series down here, at least for now. I wouldn't call it "dropped." Just "tabled." I'd like to come back to it some day, hopefully some day soon.

The highlight for me was Mosquito Girl. She was a super sexy femme fatale and the combination of her animation / character design and voice acting made her a pretty classic "sexy villainess," someone you don't like or root for but who has undeniable sex appeal. Speaking of her voice! It sounded really familiar, and I mistook it for, quite possibly though improbably, Hayashibara Megumi's. It sounded similar to her Musashi / Jessie voice in Pokémon, just a little less shrill, a little more sultry and adult. Well, I looked up who it was, and it turns out it was Sawashiro Miyuki. You may know her as Mint from Galaxy Angel, Shinku from Rozen Maiden, and Kurapica from Hunter x Hunter (2011). The voice she offers here bears greatest similarity (out of her characters I know) to Shion, the computer expert from Psycho Pass. But to be honest ... I think it'd be real fair to say that the voice is best described as "one voice actress's professional attempt to emulate Hayashibara Megumi." It just sounds so much like a "sexy Jessie" voice to me. Agree/disagree?

The cyborg sidekick is cool and all, but not cool enough to rope me into the series. I'm not normally one for cyborg characters, and indeed what pulls me to this guy the most is his master-student relationship with the half-willing Saitama, not his robotic superpowers or his cybernetic backstory.

Not too thrilled with the House of Evolution at all. I just about always hate chimeras in stories, and yet Japan's anime industry has such a fascination with them! >_< I guess the good thing is that if I do decide to watch this series then at least we're getting the stupid chimeras out of the way early. But yeah ... a chimera plot arc definitely turns me away. :\ Sorry, Doppel.

The humor is still funny for now, but like Doppel's said it's not the sort of thing that the show can sustain itself on indefinitely. Not if it wants to keep my interest.

Lots of puns in this episode. Just off the top of my head ...

the mosquito expert on the news station was named Ka-something. Ka means mosquito.

The fact that the House of Evolution is introduced by way of Mosquito Girl can't be an accident: 化 "morph; change [shape, form]; evolution" and 蚊 "mosquito" are both ka. Like ... ポケモン化 Pokémon-ka means "turning into a Pokémon," 女体化 nyotaika means a boy/man turning into a girl/woman (nyotai "female body"), etc. The word for evolution we always hear in Pokémon, 進化, sees the return of this ka character. You get the idea. "Evolution" and "mosquito" are phonically related.

The name of the apprentice's creator, Dr. Kuseno ... the way he kept saying the name, he put the stress on the middle vowel and it sounded like he was saying Kuseeno / Kusayyyyyyyyyno. Well, kusee is the masculine slang form of kuso, "shit". No / 野's just a common name suffix, so basically you can think of him as "Dr. Shitty." At least the way the cyborg says it.

The mole guy's supervillain name was Ground Dragon. This is just the anglicization of the actual Japanese word for mole, モグラ / 土竜. 土 means "mud; ground; earth; soil" and 竜 means "dragon."

Love them or hate them, I feel like this series is one time that TL notes at the top of the screen would really help non-native speakers get the full package.

If the humour stuck with you, there's hope. BBB liked it too but he's un-willing to comment on the show. Dislike of the humour is what I feared most, because compared to the manga, the presentation in the anime felt...well, weird.

I guess the more savvy would call it "comedic timing", and the anime feels like it slows down the joke tempo so there's far too much time to think about the gags. The manga just bombards bizarre imagery and puns at you, and the meteor shower of comedy works really well. I haven't gotten that from the anime, but I'm glad it wasn't lost in translation for others.

I can promise you that, not necessarily the first season, OPM remains funny while gaining a really good plot with really good characters that develop the superhero ideology theme quite well. But, it takes a while for that to roll, and for the most part early on the story is just jokes, cool battles and some occasional character development.

That page confirms what a lot of people suspected - Asura Rhino/Carnage Kabuto is indeed a Disaster Level Dragon. Beast King and Armoured Gorilla are both Demons, and while Genos was able to defeat Armoured Gorilla, he was said to not be capable of defeating Beast King.

Genos is said to be "among the strongest" of the S-Class, so I think it's fair to say that most S-Class can't defeat Demon-level threats by themselves. Recall that Pri Pri Prisoner, the weakest S-Class, could not defeat pre-rain Sea King, while Sonic and Genos were said to be able to.

What we know for sure:

-Metal Bat can handle Dragon-level threats
-Tatsumaki could defeat Golden Sperm if she was at full power
-Asura Rhino is a Dragon-level threat
-Genos is one of the strongest S-class
-Sonic could have defeated pre-rain Sea King if he had a weapon

Given that, I'd say that Genos and Sonic are on the level of "middle tier" Demon threats, while Tatsumaki and Metal Bat are on the level of "middle tier" Dragon threats, and represent the two strongest beings aside from Garou, Boros and Saitama.

I'm keeping up with this show. Even though I'm not so willing to post, I'm enjoying the hell out of this show. I like to think this show is making fun of how alot of things in Japan prioritize style over substance. All these flashy villains get their asses kicked by this dull guy who only focuses on how strong he is. I'm probably wrong, but it's a headcanon I like to think is real.